What Is It?

I have created what I hope to be a very comprehensive sortable table of all the major credit cards in Canada. Everything is covered from the issuers in Canada, including American Express, TD, CIBC, MBNA, RBC, Scotiabank, and BMO with both Personal and Business Cards addressed.

The table covers things like the minimum spend, sign-up bonuses, and any promotions with the card, including if the first year is free. I’ve also provided any dates that promotions expire (if given) and what the CPM is of the sign-up offer so you can determine the best value.

What’s Great About This Table?

Besides the fact that I have tried to cover off every single card in Canada, what I love about this table is that you can multi-sort it. Interested in which card offers Aeroplan points and is the best value in terms of the annual fee charged? Just sort the table for Aeroplan under “Rewards Program” and Sort A–>Z under “CPM”.

What about answering the question, what’s the best Personal Card to get that is First Year Free and has the lowest minimum spend required to earn the sign-up bonus? Well, just go to the “(P)ersonal or (B)usiness” column and choose P then go to the “First Year Free” column and choose Yes and finally go to the “Sign-Up Bonus” column and Sort Z–>A.

The possibilities to find the perfect card for your needs is endless. If you’ve ever read my blog, you’ll know that I would never say “this is the perfect card for you” because I have no idea what your specific situation is. If you come across a blog that tells you that you need this card, take it with a grain of salt because there are usually ulterior motives involves.

This table levels the playing field because you are now in charge of determining what criteria are important to you, full stop.

What Are Your Ulterior Motives?

I won’t lie, I have placed my referral links in some of the cards, notably the American Express, Scotiabank, and Great Canadian Rebate links. I fully understand that you have complete choice when it comes to what link to use. I hope you use mine because it helps to keep the blog rolling but if you would rather use someone else’s link, that’s your choice. I only hope to earn your referral through the work I do via the blog.

Outside of earning a few referrals here and there, I really have done this because it’s just too difficult to quickly comparison shop for credit cards in Canada without being led by the nose to a specific outcome based on the referral earned by the company promoting the card.

I wanted to give you choice, not just the illusion of choice.

Nuisances to the Table

Due to the having to lock down the spreadsheet, you will be provided with a Read Only view that does not have sorting abilities, which is the most powerful part of the spreadsheet. In order to enable the sortable view, go to Data–> Filter Views –> Create new temporary filter view.

One of the most important columns to this table is the “First Year Free” column. There are plenty of cards that don’t charge an annual fee and those cards are also classified as First Year Free so if you want to know which cards normally have an Annual Fee but also have a promotion waiving the first year’s Annual Fee, you will have to multi-sort. First, go to the “First Year Free” column and choose Yes and then go to the “Annual Fee” column and Uncheck 0. You will be left with cards that charge an Annual Fee but also have a waiver for the first year.

You may also notice a black corner on some of the cells. Those cells contain notes that provide further detail so if you see that denotion, simply hover over the cell to get more information.

Most cashback cards do not have a sign-up bonus except for a couple of MBNA cards so it’s not abnormal to see a $0 sign-up bonus in this category of cards.

Updates to the Table

I have done my best to ensure the accuracy of the information in this table but I’m human and I make mistakes. If I happen to have made a mistake, please report the error by using the link in the sheet. If you click on the link next to the name of the card, an email will be generated with the subject line of the card in question.

Please provide detailed information on what the error is. Once I verify the error, I will update the table and correct the information.

My intent is to have the most comprehensive and updated table of Canadian Credit Cards so you don’t have to search the web, only to find old information. When I update a row in the table, I will denote it under the “Last Updated” column.

Where to Find the Table

You will notice that you do not have the ability to edit the information in the table and that’s to ensure the validity of the information provided. It literally took me over 8 hours to properly compile this information so I have a vested interest in keeping the data locked down … I don’t want to have to do it again.

If there are any cards that are missing out of this table, please let me know at [email protected]

Conclusion

If you are a data-driven nerd like I am, you should find this table very useful in deriving some interesting facts about the Canadian Credit Card Industry. For example, did you know that from all the major banks, Visa is the most common card with 33 offerings, AMEX in second at 22 and MasterCard is the least represented card at only 16?

Jayce is the founder of PointsNerd and has been an avid traveler and loves to teach. He prides himself on flattening the learning curve through step-by-step guides because everyone needs to start somewhere.

22 Comments

John Bucher

Great work! I feel that I will be consulting this particular blog on a regular basis.
It is also a potful of work and time that I hope your readers appreciate. I know I do.
Thanks Jayce for all your time and effort.

Jayce

I should have specified but you can hover over cells that have a black mark in the top right corner and get more details. I’m fairly certain that I have included this information either in the cell or in the notes section. Cheers

Rhinehart

Isaac J

Great list Jayce, thanks a lot for putting to together! I’ve been looking for a new CC to replace my Marriott visa so this is helpful.

One suggestion: add a column that indicates whether the card is an Amex, visa, or mc.

I’ve also been told that the CIBC aerogold infinity can be FYF if you apply in person at a branch, possibly on the phone. I’ve confirmed this with a friend who works there. Not sure when the offer expires however.

Isaac J

Nick

Fantastic list Jayce! Very well detailed and the ability to filter for each category is great!
Perhaps you could also add a column for minimum income requirements for each card.
Thanks and love your blog 🙂

Jayce

Yes, the current date of expiry for the offer is 3/31/18 but very often, credit card companies will extend offers past the deadline but use deadlines to encourage people to apply. We’ll see whether there is a new offer on 4/1/18. Cheers

Alex

One feature I think a lot of people would find valuable would be a ‘Total Card Value’ or something along those line. Essentially, you would assign a price value to different points systems (maybe you could just use Poinsthogger’s Points Index) and then add up all the points you get and subtract the card’s fee.

I’ve created something similar to the above on a spreadsheet that I manage for my own points, and I bet others would find it helpful. Card like Amex Plat and Bus Plat do extremely well here obviously.

Thanks again for continuing to produce great content in the Canadian points space!

Jayce

Good suggestion and I did think about that but to be quite honest, I didn’t want to have yet another field to update especially considering that if you believe that points are like currency (I do) that the values need to be updated monthly at a minimum.

Two problems with that. First, it’s a ton of work and second, I didn’t want to get into an argument about why I value SPG at 2.3¢ instead of the 2.5¢ that TPG or One Mile at a Time uses. It’s like yelling at a brick wall.

I wanted to make it easy for people to compare products based on what they think is valuable. For better or worse, that’s the decision I’ve made for this sheet.

Denis Brault

Alex

I am just going through the master list and planning out which credit cards I will be using for some big expenses I have coming up over the next few months. I am sure you are a busy person but I noticed that the SPG are out of date where you have a signup bonus while the programs dont have that anymore but give you a statement credit instead.
Not a big deal since if you follow the links and read the offer it is pretty clear right away.